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Tech Tips | May 2018 Experimenting with Electronic Lab Notebooks
The author describes her efforts to implement and effectively use electronic notebooks to capture lab work in regular, advanced, and AP chemistry classes.
Classroom Commentary | March 2018 Part II: Rethinking Common Practices in High School Chemistry
This article is Part II of a series that aims at rethinking common practices in the high school chemistry curriculum. The first article in this series was published in the November 2017 issue. This article describes the shortcomings with the “5 Reaction Types” classification scheme and provides an alternative organization to the study of chemical reactions.
Nuts & Bolts | March 2018 21st Century Skills in High School Chemistry
This article discusses the changing trends in science education, with a focus on the need for implementing 21st century skills into the science curriculum, and some techniques for doing so.
Nuts & Bolts | November 2017 Integrating NGSS and STEM in the Classroom
As an educator interested in sharing your love of science with your students, how do you incorporate the NGSS and STEM in your classroom? The answer is simple. STEM and NGSS are inherently intertwined, which makes the implementation of NGSS easier. Here is a step-by-step process for how to integrate NGSS and STEM in your chemistry classroom.
Classroom Commentary | November 2017 Part I: Rethinking Common Practices in High School Chemistry
The physical vs. chemical change dichotomy and criteria for classification often taught early in chemistry courses should be removed or delayed until students have a more thorough understanding of the particulate nature of matter.
Nuts & Bolts | September 2017 Embracing Chemical Literacy
Chemical literacy has been a journey and a struggle — both of which the author has enjoyed. The struggle has ultimately improved her teaching, and in this article, her intention is to share ideas for improving the chemical literacy of students in various ways.
Nuts & Bolts | September 2017 Helping Students Use their English Language Skills
This article describes five assignments and projects that are aimed to help all students improve their English language skills.
Nuts & Bolts | May 2017 Using Formative Assessment to Guide Instruction
Formative assessment is a valuable tool for determining a student's misconceptions and level of science understanding, in order to guide class instruction. While it can seem intimidating, formative assessment can take a variety of forms to incorporate movement and collaboration in the classroom.
Classroom Commentary | May 2017 Finding Chemistry Connections in Climate Change
The scientific evidence that underlies global warming and climate change has many connections with common chemistry topics. Incorporating global warming and climate change concepts into your curriculum gives context to the importance of understanding chemistry, and can help students develop a better understanding of why chemistry truly is the central science.
Nuts & Bolts | March 2017 Peer Instruction for AP Chemistry
Peer Instruction has been described as a research-based teaching method that leverages the power of social interaction to drive learning. PI can be a powerful tool for helping students learn the challenging concepts that are integral components of AP Chemistry. This article summarizes the process of PI and research that supports it, and provides guidelines for writing quality multiple choice questions.
Nuts & Bolts | March 2017 Four Strategies for More Effective Labs
Learn four strategies for effectively connecting chemistry lessons to lab activities. This article will explore flipping the pre-lab, incorporating claim-evidence-reasoning in the hypothesis and conclusion, implementing a class discussion during inquiry labs, and developing lab quizzes.
Resource Feature | March 2017 Take Home Labs: Making Science Real
It’s an ongoing question: how do we provide students with more lab time? One answer is to introduce take home labs. In this article, the author explains how take home labs can fit into your curriculum to cover new material, review material, or provide extra credit, and how they provide increased exposure to science in our everyday world.
Classroom Commentary | March 2017 Bridging the Observable to the Atom: Teaching Chemistry to PreK-12 Students
In order to support children’s understanding of matter throughout their primary and secondary education, it's necessary to design instruction using the tetrahedral model representations in which students recognize the multiple levels of thought and contextualize learning in the everyday level. This article aims to help teachers understand the learning progressions in light of the tetrahedral model representation through NGSS and other curriculum documents.
Resource Feature | November 2016 A Map to Solving Limiting Reactant Problems
Teach struggling students how to determine the limiting reactant in a stoichiometry problem with this method. Through the use of arrows and corresponding steps, students are given appropriate guidance for completing these complicated calculations.
Resource Feature | September 2016 Tools and Strategies for Teaching Lab Report Writing
One of the critical skills expected from any science graduate is the ability to write coherent and meaningful laboratory reports. Many chemistry students come to their first- and even second-year classes with an incomplete understanding of how to write high quality formal lab reports. We have developed some tools and strategies that may be helpful in this endeavor.
Classroom Commentary | September 2016 The Value of Chemistry in a STEM Focused World
Chemistry teachers often find themselves in the center of the STEM programs within their schools. In this article, we look at what STEM education means and what the focus of our STEM programs should be. The roles of the chemistry teacher and the chemistry classroom are key to the STEM agenda, and we see how our curriculum contributes to a STEM-prepared workforce.
Tech Tips | May 2016 BYOD
The author explains how her bring-your-own-device (BYOD) classroom works and how it helps her manage her classroom while also sharing tips, tricks, favorite apps, and websites.
Classroom Commentary | September 2016 Creating a Community in the Chemistry Classroom
Good educators want to design their courses to ensure that every student finds some success, is able to take ownership, and leaves their chemistry class with a stronger sense of community. A guidance counselor may place a student in a classroom, but a sense of belonging, independence and mastery will give them reasons to take ownership and find success. This article explains a few ways in which the author has designed her classroom and chemistry courses to achieve these goals. By Kathleen Bernat
Resource Feature | March 2016 Bringing Real-Life Context to Chemical Math
Using real life examples can elicit and engage student participation. This teacher uses a striking audio clip example from a radio program to demonstrate the importance of scientific notation.
Nuts & Bolts | March 2016 Incorporating CCSS and NGSS into Introductory Chemistry Investigations
Science investigations provide a natural setting for students to develop their reading and writing skills. Two teachers explain how to transform chemistry investigations to address both Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards, using the Science Writing Heuristic template.
Nuts & Bolts | November 2016 Essential Questions
Essential questions are not only important components of quality teaching and learning, but their open-ended nature can also set the stage for launching into engaging classroom debates. The author provides resources and ideas for implementing this interactive style of learning into your chemistry classroom.
Nuts & Bolts | November 2014 Uncovering Student Thinking through the Science Literacy Framework
You can borrow tricks of the trade from literacy to create dynamic lessons to increase student understanding.
Nuts & Bolts | November 2014 Strategies for Increasing Student Engagement
Increase student engagement and promote critical-thinking skills through positive student–teacher relationships, chemical demonstrations, and student discussions.
Resource Feature | September 2015 Stoichiometry Set-up Method
How do you make stoichiometry calculations easier for students to understand? This teacher describes a process of using visual cues in combination with a step-by-step problem solving method to guide students.
Classroom Commentary | November 2014 Getting into Action
A veteran teacher shares insight on how to align objectives with learning activities and resources.